Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Long time no see! I've not been in cinema for quite some times, because the movie these days are just blah..but! It's starting to get better, one by one, good movie start to show up. Starting with Gravity..

Just a warning, super spoilers ahead if you haven't watched and don't mind then read along. But if you mind, go watch then come back pretty please see if we think alike..Or if you don't feel like watching this basically one location and a few cast movie but you wanna know sort of like what happen then read along, I promise I get you filled up..

First of all, let me just say kudos for whoever make the trailer for this movie. It's freakin' nerve wrecking and depressing..I admit my nerves are wrecked just by watching the trailer..it makes me feel horrid, coz you know in space once you flew you're basically gone..

Story begins with Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) who is on her first ever space mission trip, repairing a telescope something..something..(I don't really quite get what is she trying to repair LOL) on the satellite. On the mission with her, there's a few other people one of them is a veteran astronauts Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) who is on his last space mission. In the time of happening, he was using some kind of machine that allows him to drive (walk?) around the space (Oh for god's sake let me google what the thing called first!). Okay, the thing is called Manned Maneuvering Unit which allowed the astronauts to sort of moving in space..The reason why I need to mention this is because this MMU will come in handy later on..

After a warning from Houston that there might be a satellite debris happening due to a chain reaction caused by Russian missile attack to their own dysfunctional satellite, they have to pack up and move to a safer location. But satellite debris come faster than warning, the explorer got hit even before they have the chance to get in. Dr. Stone found herself free falling in space (quite scary if you ask me!)

After a while of twirling in space, lost of connection with Houston and Kowalski and a lot of panicking later, Kowalski finally answer to Stone's desperate calls and ask her location. I don't really know how Kowalksi know where Stone is just by her information that she can see the Russian satellite shuttle from where she is, probably he is a veteran and he knows space so well? But he did find her (fiuh!) Why he can find her is because he's riding the MMU (lucky him! or else he will be lost in space and the end for the movie).

After Kowalski get Stone, they go back to the Explorer and found that they are the only survivors and that the Explorer is totally damaged. They planned to hike (ya, I particularly remember Kowalksi say hike, I thought it's kinda weird he use the word hike) to the Russian shuttle and use their pod to go back to earth.

Their plan went smoothly they hike to the Russian shuttle smoothly, the problem happen when landing.

Let's just say they crashed to it and they can't grip anything at all (all scene you see from trailer). You know what happen next, Stone's feet got tangled with cables and two lives hanging by the loose cables..

The next thing happen is just so sad, I feel like it's Titanic all over again and I cried (almost sob T_T ) Kowalksi asked Stone to let go of him because the cables are not strong enough to sustain both of them.

It's like "Let Go!" and "No, I got you I got you" and "No you must let go" and "I'll come and get you" things like that..and it's just so sad..

Stone finally let go after promising Kowalksi that she'll make it inside the Russian air lock and go back to earth.

After this, it's mainly Stone's adventure to go back to earth. Of course, it's not smooth at all..

There's just something wrong all the time. First, after she get in to the airlock the shuttle caught fire and

she must escape by launching the pod from the shuttle..After she successfully launch it guess what happen next? The parachute got tangled with the shuttle body so that the pod cannot go anywhere. She then bravely go outside and detached the parachute only to find another debris come her way! Cut long dramatic scene short the pod finally detached from the shuttle BUT it ran out of fuel! God damnit I mean it's like a bunch of unfortunate event series happening to her! After a serious attempt of desperation, she thinks there's no way out and she choose to turn off the oxygen level and just sleep her way to death.

When the oxygen gets lower, hallucination of Kawolski came and reminded her of one little thing she could do to help her get out of space! She wakes up, on the oxygen and the engine and succesfully made it to her next stop Tiangong the chinese shuttle. After a few bumpy attempts to launch the chinese pod she finally succeed and go back to earth.

I really enjoy this movie, and let me just take a sentence here to say how AMAZING Sandra in this movie! She totally shine! Clooney not so much as he's gone lost in space halfway in the movie so I can't say much about him. Bottomline, this movie is breath taking, heart pumping in the first half and then the suspense pretty much goes downhill after Stone got herself in the pod..I'll rate this movie 4 of 5 and give Sandra Bullock a 10 coz she's just that amazing she just proof herself to the world she's not just a drama/comedy romantic stars but she can pull suspense and action too!

Hope you enjoy this long (hopefully not boring) review of Gravity and see you in the next one!

Thursday, September 5, 2013

HAHA that's a mouthful of title right?! But it's true this recipe I'm about to share is that good, it's super easy, very yummy, low fat not to mention it's raw and vegan! Only take 5 ingredients and 2 steps, I'm not even kidding!
I put this pudding on instagram last night and my family and friends have been asking me to share the recipes so here it is..

The 5 Ingredients you need are (this is for one serving, just double or triple up if you want to make more):

Monday, September 2, 2013

Long time no movie monday! I know right! I miss writing a movie post as well, but lately there are no good enough movie to review. The last movie I watched worth reviewing is The Conjuring! It's so scary but gooood..but the idea of posting ghost pictures in my blog is just not going to happened haha..

So, yesterday my husband forced me to watch The Internship..honestly my opinion about watching funny movies in cinema first is a waste of money and second all the funny segments have been put in the trailer so no point watching them and third there are no special effect or some sort so it's totally not worth watching in cinema better in blue ray or download? So I'm super reluctant to watch this but halfway thru the movie I start to enjoy it..

The story is about 2 old school salesman Nick (Owen Wilson) and Billy (Vince Vaughn), who lose their job because the company decided to computerized their system so they didn't need human to go sales door to door anymore. Lost and confused because their job is all they know, not to mention in despair Billy try to find some job over the internet until he got them an internship at Google..

The overall movie experience is 6.5 out of 10, half way through the movie is pretty dreary and the storyline is pretty stereotype and predictable but I managed to (let's say) pull out a few lessons along the way..

Lesson#1: No matter how old you are, you can always learn new things..
Nick and Billy is old school and so much older compared to the other interns, they belong to the 80's and not technology literal but when they scored the internship in Google (thanks to their out of the box answer during the interview and their age [google is open for diversity]) they meet new people, they're exposed to a new world they don't even know and managed to learn along the way and even inspire people who despised them at first..

Lesson#2: You can always learn something from people, no matter how old, how young, whatever ethnicity they are, male, female, the point is if you want to see something good in somebody you can learn from them.
In the beginning of the internship, all the interns have to form a team of 5 and team who win the most challenge will get the full time job. As predicted, nobody wants to be team with Billy and Nick and these other kids, the Asian, the Indian?, and the white geek..so they're forced to be team. They started pretty bad as a team mate but Billy quickly act like a leader and bring the team together. In the end, they learn so much more than anybody in the other team because of their background diversity and of course real life experience Billy and Nick have..

Lesson#3: "You don't want to wakeup with regret on your calendar in the morning"
(Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong with the exact quote) This is what Nick say when he's trying to ask the beautiful Google Executive Dana (Rose Bryne). Of course, finally she say yes..It's quite true, whatever you want to do just do it, as long as it's a good thing, just go for it..

Lesson#4: You won't get far by becoming a bully or the bad guy
Graham, a very ambitious intern keep bullying Nick and Billy since the start. He even bully his own team member because he's fat. In the end as we all know this character won't win even if they look like they are at first..

As predicted (I told you, this movie is predictable) Billy's team won and they got the full time job..

Thursday, August 15, 2013

As you may know (or not) I live in Singapore, and we all know how big Singapore is (ya I know it's pretty small), sometimes I get bored with the normal activities like watching movies, hunting for new eating place or hanging out in the mall (FYI, there are a lot of emerging nice shopping malls in Singapore, no not in Orchard..Singapore is not all about Orchard you know ;)) so a few weeks ago me, hubby and a few of his friends went..Prawning!

I never went prawning before so I don't really know what to expect, I just know that prawning is something like fishing and fishing is just not my cup of tea..I just don't have the patient to wait for the fishes to come and eat my bait..

But yeah, that night we're pretty bored, having dinner at home and one of his friends whose a regular prawner (don't even know if this word even exists!) suggested we go prawning so I thought why not..

So this is how a prawning place look like! They havequite a lot of these pools..

Non refundable, but if you get bored in the 2nd hour,can go back next time just bring the receipt..

Prepare dry and wet to wipe your hands after putting the bait on the rod..coz the bait is pretty disgusting x_x

(Nope, that's not me) But here, you can see quite a lot of girls enjoy this activity too!

After one hour not getting any prawn, I give up and justput my rod in the bamboo like that..

Finally!!!! FIRST PRAWN So happy and so proud LOL

After almost 2 hours, I finally get another one..

My friend's basket compared to my sad basket :(

After prawning, we get to bbq our catch..don't forgetto take the salts from the cashier..

Wishy washy all the prawns and put them in the stickfor easy bbq later on..

Sprinkle them with salt and ready to bbq..

Charcoal grilled for about 8-12mins..

And tadaaa! The fresh salted bbq prawns..(honestly they didnn't taste good lol). My point is, prawning is quite fun, please give them a try if you're bored or looking for new activities in the weekends..Who knows you might get addicted ;)

Monday, July 8, 2013

Apologies for the absence of Movie Monday this week..I did watch Lone Ranger but really it's really below my expectations and *sigh* I don't want to waste my breath talking about it! But, don't be sad here I show you something really amaayyyzinnnggg!

This is Bourbon chocolate mochi, I first encounter this when I was in Japan. I was in the 7/11 looking for japanese sweets to snack and see this..I'm always like intrigued by something matcha flavour and or something mochi so when I saw this, it's just right up my alley! I'm a bit hesitant at first, to be honest seeing the packaging and think about it that they're boxed mochi the first impression is they are not going to taste right and fresh and nice and the mochi will probably dried up and most probably the matcha chocolate taste cheap and plastic-ky ( little that I know I should not underestimate Japanese sweets ever!) Anyway, seeing the price (I remember it's around 100-200yen) not so expensive so what the heck i just try one box.

Being a greedy sweet tooth of me of course I bought the other things I found interesting in the shop and totally forget to eat this until the last day I was waiting in the boarding room (which is one of the most hateful thing to do in my opinion) and start eating this and oh..my..gosh..they are the most moist, delicious, not too sweet, gummy, yummy, soft, bouncy, mochi with a very yummy, delicious, milky, matcha flavored chocolate!!! I totally regret that I didn't eat this earlier! If I did I swear to chocolate mochi heaven I'm going to stock up like hell!

BUT hold and behold! Two weeks ago, I went to Isetan supermarket and I found this!!!!! SO HAPPY! I swear they didn't sell this before! It $5.20 here too expensive I think since I remember in Japan it didn't cost more than 2$! But still okay lah..it totally worth my 5$..I have eaten 3 boxes ever since and this is my last one :'( Each box comes with two small packets of four balls..So total 8 balls in one box :( I wish they have more inside like 16 or 20 balls..that would be amazing lol!

This is how it looks like, like the picture on the box it really have 3 layers..first is the mochi, then a fat matcha chocolate inside and then there is this sad dollop of (I suppose) melted matcha cream. The third layer doesn't really exist but it doesn't matter coz these two layers are amazing (i know, i know i said amazing like a thousand times already, but seriously!) Judging from my picture I think, you will think "girl, what bouncy heck you talkin' about" but seriously that sweet layer of mochi is really yummy and gummy..please pick them up and try if you found this anywhere! They're just soooo good! Hehehe nobody paying me to blog about this (although it would be awesome if there is! somebody please sponsor me already!!!) it's just me sharing a good, not so expensive chocolate mochi ever exist..

Last pic before I go..show off my singing bone hello kitty my hubby get for me (God knows how crazy people over this black kitty and how hard it was to get them, if you don't live in Singapore google all the craze and mind will be blown by how far people would go for a merchandise! Btw, love you and thankyou hubs :*)

Monday, July 1, 2013

This week movie review is interesting, who have watched White House Down and Olympus Has Fallen?? Gosh, it's cray cray similar! I don't know who rip who, but clearly somebody's rippin' somebody here!

Same idea, same location, similar characters and similar villains..If these movies are human, they're definitely twins! The story basically is about terrorists attack to the white house. I've done a post for Olympus has fallen before so I feel a bit redundant to bring it up again, so here is a quick run thru for the white house down and later on I'm going to list up how crazy similar these two are.. (as always, spoilers ahead)

Story begins slow and boring (align with their poster campaign tag "It will start like any other day", you can google that yourself) showing us the normal activity of all the characters..John Cale (Channing Tatum), a US Capitol Officer have been looking for an opportunity to be in Secret Service. By the help of a friend, he finally land an interview with secret service agent Carol Finnerty (Maggie Gyllenhaal) in the white house and get an extra pass to the white house for his politic obsessed daughter Emily. After failing the interview, he and Emily decide to join the white house tour..

The attack begins when a bomb exploded in the capitol building (it looks epic, no?!), Martin Walker (the head of secret service) conduct a white house lockdown which means closing off white house from the inside, nobody can go in or go out. This lockdown separates John and Emily who went to the toilet by herself. Meanwhile the janitor undercover terrorists take down the white house one room after another, killing all the secret service inside the buildings and of course make the tourists as their hostages..I'm not really sure how many people work in white house in daily basis (I'm sure there's a lot) but in the movie it looks like there's nobody except a handful of secret service agents, a few of security guards, the tourists and a few of the ministers in one of the room.

John Cale, desperately want to get her daughter successfully escape from the terrorists and go to the first floor toilet where Emily went (of course, she's not there anymore), Emily bravely wander around the white house and manage to record some of terrorists face and upload it to her youtube channel!

After hearing gunshots inside the white house, Martin Walker decide to take the president (Jamie Foxx) to the safety bunker in the basement and the president trusting him and let him guide them there..From this point, I think everybody kinda get the idea that this guy is one of the villains (they did put his motives from the beginning, his son was killed in the middle east)..and yes of course when they reach the bunker, Martin shot everybody except the President..

Lucky for Mr. President, John Cale who is suppose to find his daughter safe him from that evil traitor Martin Walker..from here it's basically how John Cale playing die hard all around white house and protecting the president..

Well this movie is not bad (Man of Steel still like way worst than this, sorry to say). I must say the action is there, mix with humor here and there (most come from the president), pretty enjoyable movie if you don't mind die hard characters..I'm just quite annoyed by the fact that this movie is inspired by Olympus Has Fallen (again, no idea who copy who but this come more later than Olympus) and I just can't stop comparing the two..

Omygosh this post is going to be grandmother nag long but I can't take it, I need to go through the similarities of White House Down and Olympus Has Fallen:
1. Main character: One and only surviving Secret Service Agent, John Cale vs Mike Banning. The different is John is a secret service wannabe and Mike was actually in the secret service until some incident happens (jic you didn't watch Olympus, pls go to my review if you wanna know more, i got you covered ;))

2. Second main character: The President of USA..The different is Jamie Foxx is lucky enough John save him quite early in the movie and the president can get into action with him. The Olympus president was kept as hostage to the end until Mike Banning save him..

3. Both movie include kid in it.The different is in WHD the kid is John's daughter and in OHF the kid is the president's son..both trapped inside the white house..

4. The location: White House (Look at these two pictures! Even the choper is in the same spot! Of course WHD have to put Channing Tatum's front side coz he's just too yummy!! hehehe)

5. Villains: Both have the evil bastard inside backstabber/traitor. WHD's traitor is white house head of security and OHF's traitor is one of the secret service.

6. Both of the vice president were killed in the movie (WHD's vice president killed after a missile hit the Air Force One and OHF's vice president if I'm not wrong was shot)

7. Which leaves us to the next similarity, Mr. Speaker of the USA is now the acting president. WHD's Mr.Speaker is actually the twist ending this movie gave (yup, he's one of the villain) and OHF's Mr.Speaker is a protagonist..

Okay 7 similarities, I'm done!

One thing I really like from this movie is agent Carol Finnerty ( Maggie Gyllenhaal ), I always like her..There's something about her that makes her very nice to see..she's not straight pretty (like Miranda Kerr for example) but she have this charisma, persona, elegance and something ladylike that make her so beautiful to me..